


a hopper-tunistic crime

by tempestandtea



Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: F/M, One Shot, Pet Store, Pure AU, pure fluff, with zero murdering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 16:56:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11513550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempestandtea/pseuds/tempestandtea
Summary: On a whim, Veronica visits a local pet store and drags JD along with her. He becomes more attached to one of the animals than she would have expected.





	a hopper-tunistic crime

**Author's Note:**

> the only thing fitting for this title was a god awful pun about opportunistic crimes and rabbits I'm so sorry
> 
> this is a prompt from @wafflenull that I answered on tumblr and felt the need to post here! the original prompt was  
> "Non-murderous veronica and jd go to a pet shop and jd becomes obsessed with a little rabbit and veronica's all heart eyes"

It was Veronica’s idea.

They were on the way back from one of their weekly after-school 7/11 trips when it happened. One stray glance out the driver’s side window, almost deflected by the setting sun bouncing off the newly-erected sign, and suddenly Veronica was dragging the steering wheel in a sharp, reckless u-turn, hauling the car in the direction of the pet store. 

Before today, the building had been a bit of a cursed location for businesses, with no store lasting more than a month or two. Over the years it had been a hardware store, then a Halloween decoration store, and at one point a photography studio, but today it was a pet store. Not one of the dumb ones that only sold fish and animal care supplies either; this was a proper pet shop with dogs in the window and everything. 

One look and Veronica knew she had to see it that instant, before it disappeared like all the other stores seemed to. 

And JD was there too, tumbling forward in the passenger seat at the sudden turn. He wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, as usual. He grunted upon impact with the passenger’s side door, but didn’t complain about the change in destination. 

As the car rolled into a parking spot, Veronica grinned up at the marquee. 

“C'mon,” she said, climbing out of the car in a hurry, “I wanna look at the animals before they close.”

JD quietly complied, following his girlfriend into the store like her shadow- a looming, slightly-threatening-in-appearance shadow in a trenchcoat a size too big for him, but a shadow nonetheless. 

The tiny chime set off by the couple’s entrance seemed bring the entire store to life. A pair of parakeets hanging over the cash register began squawking, as if conversing with one another, the hamsters and mice began to scurry around in their sawdust and run on their wheels, and the kittens and puppies perked up, their interest captured by the two teenagers. Veronica practically swooned upon entering.

A pair of chestnut-colored dachshunds immediately caught Veronica’s attention, pawing at the sides of their plexiglass containers. They became ecstatic as she reached a hesitant hand in to pet them, fighting for her attention. She laughed, letting the two dogs bark and lick her hands with their rough twin tongues, stroking their velvet ears. Her cat would be having a fit if she could see her now. 

Veronica turned to invite JD to join her in puppy heaven, but there was only empty space where her shadow would normally be.

She knew he had had a hamster at one point, and that it had escaped, and thought maybe he was browsing in the small animal section for a replacement. Peeking down the aisle, she could tell she was wrong immediately. 

“JD?” she said. No answer. It seemed he had left the store all together. 

And then he was behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

Veronica nearly jumped out of her skin. She let out a tiny noise that was somewhere between a squeak and a scream. The parrots rattled in their cages anxiously.  

JD didn’t seem to notice, though. “Can we go now, Veronica?” he said, shifting backwards and forwards on his heels. 

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure,” she said, thrown off balance by the scare and JD’s sudden shift in mood. 

 _Maybe animals make him uncomfortable?_ she thought to herself. That wouldn’t make sense though, he had had pets in the past.

But just in case it was true, she took his hand and squeezed it. He only looked more uncomfortable than before, and dragged her towards the door in a haste. 

“Hey, stop! I can walk on my o-” Veronica cut herself off as she tripped over a her own feet and collided with her boyfriend. Her hand bumped into something roughly the size of a baseball wedged in his pocket. This was definitely not a baseball though, this thing was squishy. 

The soft bulge in his pocket, shifted and squirmed. Straightening herself up, Veronica stood, transfixed by the sentient pocket lump. 

“JD,” she said quietly, not moving, “What the hell is that?”

His eyes shifted away, not meeting hers, and mumbled, “Nothing.” He was like a toddler caught coloring on his bedroom walls.

The lump chose this time to peep out of the pocket, sniffing the air with it’s tiny clover of a nose, ears pricked up straight. 

The lump was a rabbit, not much more than a baby by the looks of it.

Pulling JD behind a shelf of dog food, out of sight of the nice old cashier lady, Veronica lifted the bunny rabbit out of the trenchcoat pocket and cradled it in her arms. It had grey fur soft like the down feathers of a baby bird. It seemed comfortable nestled into the crook of her arm.

“What the hell?” Veronica hissed under her breath, trying to avoid aggravating the rabbit. “Were you trying to smuggle this thing out of the store on purpose?”

“No…”

She fixed him with a sharp look and raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, yeah.” 

“Oh my God,” she whispered to him. The rabbit in question started to squirm, exploring Veronica by trying to climb out of her arms and onto her shoulders.  

JD lifted the rabbit out of her arms gently, holding it’s delicate body close to his chest, over his heart. “It just seemed so lonely, he was all in a cage by himself… and he had these big ol’ ears-” 

At that point, Veronica zoned out on JD’s words entirely as she watched him cradle the rabbit much like one would with a newborn baby, how careful he was being with it, how he absentmindedly ran a soft hand through its fur as he stared down lovingly at it.  

Veronica sighed inwardly and pulled her wallet out of her purse, checking to see how much money she had. It wasn’t a whole lot, but…

With a nod, she turned the corner and approached the cashier. 

“Wait, Veronica, what are you doing?” JD called after her, his eyes wide. He probably thought she was going to turn him in for attempted bunny-napping or something.

“Buying you the rabbit, you idiot.”


End file.
